


you’re here and i can breathe again

by EllaYuki



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dean POV, Emotional, Episode Related, Episode: s13e05 Advanced Thanatology, Feels, Hugs, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Episode: s13e05 Advanced Thanatology, Reunions, Spoilers, advanced thanatology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 13:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12683100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllaYuki/pseuds/EllaYuki
Summary: on the way back to the bunker, after billie has sent him back and the case is done with, dean gets a call that tilts the world back on its axis.





	you’re here and i can breathe again

**Author's Note:**

> The lack of capital letters is INTENTIONAL. All fics written by me in 2017 are like that, so if that puts you off, I'm sorry and you are more than welcome to back out now. 
> 
> (AKA: Please STOP MENTIONING IT, it will NOT change. Thank you.)

he answers the phone without much thought. the number doesn’t seem familiar, but that’s never stopped him before. hunters change phones all the time and this could be important.

‘yeah,’ he says, not feeling up for pleasantries. he’s had too long of a damn night, and too long of a damn day, and whoever it is can just deal with it.

he almost swerves the car into a ditch when he hears that all too familiar voice. ‘hello, dean,’ he hears and all air leaves his lungs in a rush. his heart starts pounding in his chest.

‘what?’ sam asks sleepily from his right, and dean can do nothing but look at him. he can’t speak, he can barely breathe as he listens to the voice on the other end of the line.

and oh, something sparks in his chest, something both fierce and fearful, and he steps on the gas without answering sam’s worried questions. the only things that he manages is a strangled ‘we’re on our way’ before he hangs up.

it might be a trick, he knows, it might be a trap.

it might also be real, and he needs, _he needs_ , more than anything, to know for sure.

~

when they get there, he stops the car and he’s almost afraid to get out.

he does, and while he can feel the way sam freezes in place, he makes his body move, step by step by step. he needs to make sure.

the trench coat, even in the low light, is different from the one he’s last been wearing. it looks so much like the one he used to wear, once, years ago, the one that dean’s moved from car to car for… he doesn’t even remember exactly how long, that it throws dean for a loop.

and then he turns, and oh.

oh.

he’s really…

cas is really…

for a second, no one says anything, the silence almost deafening.

and then…

‘hello, dean.’

and all of a sudden dean can breathe again.

he doesn’t even think, he just moves. closes the gap between them, pulls cas close, tight, and buries his face into cas’ neck. his eyes sting.

‘cas, you son of a bitch,’ is all he can say, because what else _can_ he say in a situation like this?

‘dean,’ cas whispers, hugging dean back just as tightly, and that fierce, fearful thing that sparked earlier now spreads from the middle of his chest outward, warming him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes.

‘dammit, cas,’ he says, pulling away a bit, and just looking at him, eyes searching his face. _i though i told you never to do that again_ , is on the tip of his tongue, but he doesn’t manage to say it because sam clears his throat. and oh, right, sam should get his turn to hug cas.

his heart is still racing, his blood rushing, his skin tingling, and he can’t stop looking at cas. it feels almost like he’ll vanish the minute dean looks away.

‘dean, come on, let’s go home,’ sam says, and it snaps dean out of his reverie.

‘yeah,’ he says, ‘yeah, let’s go. come on, cas,’ and he has to take a deep breath before he’s able to move again.

(if sam makes it a point of getting into the back seat, letting cas take shotgun, dean doesn’t mention it.

he is thankful, though he’d never say it, because he knows he wouldn’t be able to focus on driving if he had to check the backseat every other second, to make sure cas is still there.)

~

‘welcome home, cas,’ he says as they enter the bunker.

‘it’s good to be home,’ cas says, and the little smile on his face has dean hugging him again, just because he can.


End file.
